news for today

The xbox came back to us today. well, actually, it was a replacement, all clean, new and shiny. and my fable game isn't working. something about downloaded content being different. i'm very sad. i'm totally not starting a new game, so i'll never get to play again. awh :(

i have no news. yoshi isn't eating crickets. he's going to get malnourished if we keep feeding him mealworms.

a quad-core does 3ds renders very quickly. i need something to render.

right - i'm going to go find some blue-prints or something.

i have a new user-pic :)

the quandaries of life and finding a job

i changed my style again. this time, it's one of the default Lj ones. i generally don't go for them, because they are too generic, but at the same time i'm way too lazy to go work on a style myself. anyway, we'll see how long this one lasts. it has a good chance of lasting a good long time, because the tags appear in a cloud, the page summary gives numbers of comments and the main entry text is constrained to a certain line length. so it has the things i like, the only problem is the colours, but it was the best of the pixipets ones.

i applied for more jobs today. dull, dull, dull sounding ones: secretarial and admin. i tried to just go for companies that sound interesting, in fields like music, printing, IT. i did apply for one customer service job, and one software testing job (whatever was i thinking? but it is an entry level position and they give you training, so why not? (the voice in my head says "because you have no knowledge of the industry." shush voice in my head))

i did this funny career test yesterday to help me figure out what kind of job i'd really like to do. it had this to tell me: Creative Expression, Aesthetics, Time Freedom, Job Tranquility, Change and Variety, Knowledge, Excitement, Moral Fulfillment are all aspects of a career that i would find fulfilling.
so:
_ i need to be exercising my creative drive, ok;
_ everything needs to be beautiful and inspiring, this is where i generally get let down;
_ i want no pressure, yea - good luck with that one;
_ again no stress or bother, so important it happens twice;
_ nothing boring and routine, never going to happen;
_ i want to learn new stuff and be using my brain, this one is a possibility but probably not without stress and responsibility;
_ can't be boring, i think we had this one already too;
_ and finally morally fulfilling, what on earth does this mean?
so in other words: my dream career is one that dosn't exist. well, ok - i have just cut off any ideas out of hand... ok - actually thinking of jobs that have all of these things: the no pressure thing is the real difficult thing to get around. you know, apart from the stress bit, games designer fits into all of these. i imagine it would get kind of routine after a while. writing a fantasy novel got routine - come up with idea, find good words, structure words into a sentence, come up with more words, structure them into a sentence that dosn't follow the exact same structure as the last sentence... yea. it's really hard.

anyway.

my 3d girl model is coming on. not exactly well, but we're getting there. i re-appled the biped because her hands weren't cooperating.
penelope_stone took me and davidnarby on a road trip looking for a car yesterday. it was quite successful. she found a car that suits her.

right. i think i've said enough.

3d modelling as a form of procrastination

got to bed at 2 last night. woke at 9 this morning. i have a feeling i'll be tired this evening. ah well. it was worth it.
i was messing about in 3dsmax last night and i opened up my girl file. i put basic materials, hair and (dan dan daaaaa) a biped rig on her. i can now pose her in any position i want. wooo!!
of course, all of this is in procrastination of my novel, but it makes me feel good when my procrastination efforts result in something creative. unfortunately, my model's proportions are a bit wierd, so i had to make the biped rig unrenderable (shush, firefox dictionary - this is a word) because it was poking out in odd places.

so - plans for today: renew my provisional licence (now called a learner permit - way to make new drivers feel inept). i must drop an invoice into cit, and apart from that, i think i'll make a material for my girl's eyes, a bump map for her hair and sort out the colour scheme on her clothes. and not write... maybe i'll write.

i think that's all i have to say.

just making things up to fill the space

i attempted to get some writing done today. i figure i got about 100 words. not so good, but still better than 0 words. and apart from those few words i've done very little of note with the rest of my day. i think living in new zealand spoiled my views of summer. i had forgotten just how bad irish summers are - how dull and overcast. so what i'm getting at is that the weather wouldn't inspire you to do much. it's a mini-battle just to get over its looming sort of depressiveness.

i made sushi rice for dinner. it was yummy. i need to figure out the right proportions for the vinegar/sugar/salt mix, though. i make it with balsamic, which is way too strong, so i water it down (with water) and always end up with too much. anyway. it's not like it will go off quickly or anything. i covered the remainder with tin-foil and it will be there for again.

i want something good looking, but easy to model in 3dsmax. i'd do a tea-pot, but that's cheating and i wouldn't feel good about the end result. i'm thinking some kind of funky building... but my imagination has run away somewhere, probably somewhere with better weather than here.

ok, i need to end on a positive note: my sushi rice rocked!!!

i feel occasional pangs of remorse

yes - i'm aware how long it has been since i posted last. nothing has really happened since then. well, it has really.

we are getting organized for our trip. we did a practice pack last weekend - i'm seriously considering bringing only one pair of pants and only a few different tops.

our indian visas came through yesterday and arrived today. i have my first stamp on my passport. wheee!!

i'm having serious trouble with my driving test. it got re-scheduled to the 8th of may and i need it within 6 days. i really don't think that is going to happen. it will have been such a waste of time and money (and emotion) if i don't get my test before i leave, cause i can't see myself doing it after i return.

in one week i'll be on the road to dublin. wooo! i booked our hostel in delhi - i hope it's nice. it's 6km from the city centre. i don't mind - it's in the tibeten enclave, away from the worst of the touts and beggars and stuff.

why do people not accept that as a writer i can't spell some words? like responce and availible. is it not ok to master grammar if you have a few (hundred) words that you can't spell? oh well. i still have 2000 words (about) to write to finish my novel. it's the very last scene and i don't quite know (still) how to work it out. another battle is fine and all, but that will be three in a row. is it a bit much to end the book in a flair of magic and swords and stuff? meh.

i'm up to ep9 of heroes. the "wow" factor has waned but it is still very good. hiro is my favourite character. and peter. and isacc. he looks better as a junkie - clean hair dosn't suit him.

mmm, what else. i got the 3d houses finished. i should put them up on dA. if i think about it when i go home. they are ok. they have some problems, but it took waaay too long to render them for me to go back and fix them. the biggest one took 11 hours to render. the quality is really good.

right so. i guess i'll go now. i've filled up enough of people's friends' pages.